7/11/10

Perhaps someone is winning today, but that someone isn't me. Due to circumstances somewhat under my control, I will have to abandon my comic strip. At least for a while. I will not reflect on the complexities of this choice, but I will say that I was probably not born to write comic strips. As a genius once said, loosely paraphrased, comedy is a bitch. He wasn't kidding. It is well beyond my meager powers. I also won't accuse anyone of anything, and I take full responsibility for my failures. They are mine and mine alone. And I am sure there will be many more to come. If you aren't failing, that means you aren't trying. And I will try. If you help me and hang out with me, I will thank you. If you plant a virus on my website (what was the point of that?), I will leave you to stew in your own nastiness. Enjoy.

And yet, maybe I am winning today. I don't reckon I was put on this planet to produce a weekly funny strip (not that I am being judgmental, it just isn't for me). What I feel like I was put here to do is write fiction. I have been writing stories since the fourth grade, my undergraduate degree is in English, and I have been an avid reader as far back as I can remember. Do I read comic strips? No. Have I ever enjoyed them? No, not for any length of time. Probably should have taken the hint there. And so I will view this as a possible win for me. Frankly, it will free me up to write and read more. I don't see any loss there. As for readers, if ever had any, I will only hope a few people out there had a few laughs. Ah, laughs. How rare is that mental rush of genuine humor? I have said elsewhere, and it bears repeating, true humor is something that is both very true and very absurd. It demands a little philosophical insight. The other stuff causes one to perhaps titter in embarrassment, or is an emotional reflex akin to recoiling from insects. Did my stuff make the grade? Doubtful. I can only hope someone somewhere maybe chuckled or smiled. If that happened even once, my friends and perhaps even virus-planting enemies, then I have succeeded. I suspect I have had this success once or twice, and so I leave my comic strip days behind with some satisfaction. It was an interesting experiment. Nothing was lost (except my time, which was freely given) and perhaps something was even achieved. You can't ask for more than that.

Where does that leave this website? For now I will post (re-post technically) the YA novel I wrote in 05-06. I will update with new chapters three times a week. I will also continue to write fiction and may post other novels as well. I will continue adding to my 2010 album. Occasionally I will post updates here, to keep all the web bots informed.



Sean